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with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server
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There are isolated problems with current patches, but they are well-known and documented on this site. |
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Rotary dial cell phone
- This topic has 76 replies, 17 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 11 months ago by
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Verizon, are you listening?
ooh I sure hope not
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Charlie: “in the U.S.A. you have to dial ten numbers plus a 1 ”
You can do it using a rotary dialing disk. Just dial one digit of the composite number (1+… with no ‘+’) after another, there is no limit to how many digits one can dial imposed by the dial itself. Whether, these days, one will always be able to connect a “rotary” mobile phone to a central that actually still has the corresponding rotary system available, well… I have my doubts. But there are still places, including here in the USA, where the local central (or maybe just the workplace company’s PBX Box) is still using the rotary system.
As a personal note: my first job in Australia was working for a company making telephone equipment. At the time, printed circuits were a novelty, and I was asked to see if there was a way to replace their clunky electrical emulation of a rotary disk: a gadget then known as a pulsed key-sender (because it sent the same pulses as a rotary, each lasting about as long and spaced at the same intervals than those from the real thing). Their gadget was made of chunky discrete components: capacitors, inductors, resistors and mechanical relays. The idea, as explained to me, was to substitute it with something much smaller and even more reliable made using “these new-fangled semi-conductor thingies.” So I did (using transistors and small discrete components in a “breadboard” or “proof of concept” model) and that got me: the high esteem of the Big Boss; a company paid Master’s fee tuition; plus time off on full pay to study. Then, while at it, the Electrical Engineering School Faculty offered to get me a government funded teaching fellowship to do a PhD. They did, I did, and here I am.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
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Charlie: The longest time was taken when dialing ‘0’, because that caused ten “clicks”, and probably took just over two seconds. For ten digits, it would have depended on the actual number being called, but the longest possible time would be when dialing ten zeroes, not very likely, and that would take close to 20 seconds. But if you happened to live in a movie or a TV show, where all numbers begin with “555”, that characteristic alone would take some three seconds.
All that might feel intolerably slow, but I did use phones with rotary dials for many years and it never seemed to take so long to dial a number as to become something worth worrying about. It was definitely slower than pushing buttons with the current tones dialing system, but I can’t imagine that difference being a very big deal even today. I think it would just be a matter of getting used to that. Except for speed-dialing, that is definitely something one could not do with the old rotary system (as normally implemented). However, when one is using a “rotary” cell-phone (and, by the way, I’ve never seen one of those, so I am not sure how they are used) could the time it takes to dial a number be a problem? Dialing 911 would take, maybe, less than three seconds if using one of those telephones of my younger days.
And as what might or may not be a point of interest, I might add that, when I was a boy, the city where my grandparents lived still had a telephone system run by operators of flesh and blood, all female, and my grandparents telephone had a handle one had to turn quickly to cause a tiny generator inside to send electric pulses to the exchange and buzz an operator to let her know one wanted to make a call.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
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It was definitely slower than pushing buttons with the current tones dialing system, but I can’t imagine that difference being a very big deal even today
Of course we can, less robo calls
Think many these days would be puzzled with these emojis??
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“…built something that could replace her daily flip phone.
Correct: A flip phone.” [emphasis added]
Why do people act so surprised each time they see this kind of thing? Something like 15% of American adults do not have a smart phone. That’s a greater percentage of people than the market share of MacOS and Linux combined is in the PC market.
Do people express shock when they learn someone’s laptop is a Macbook? I haven’t even shocked anyone when they learn my laptop (usually the Swift, which is my out-and-about laptop, which is why I am using it now) runs Linux.
I don’t have a smartphone either. I’ve never even touched one! I don’t like them or the societal expectations that have evolved around them, to the effect that there is the expectation that texts, social media posts, etc., which are inherently non-realtime media, will nonetheless always receive instant responses. I do not wish to be on an always-on electronic leash… email me or call my land line and leave a message on my actual physical answering machine, and I may pick up or return the call. Texting to my landline will not work, and neither will hanging up without leaving a message and calling back later, unless you intend to leave a message that time.
I have a slider phone, but I never answer it (unless I have asked someone specific to call), check the messages, or read the texts. It’s a prepaid model and they do not offer the ability to turn off texting or voice mail, or else I would. It’s clogged with spam and scam calls/texts/messages.
It used to say that the wireless subscriber has not set up the mailbox and hang up, but now it takes a message anyway. I keep seeing “you have voicemail, hear now?” messages on it when I am trying to use it for its most common purpose– telling me the time. That and providing a means to call for assistance when I am out are its roles. The rest can wait until I am home, just as it was when I was young.
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I’d give you a hundred up-votes for your post if I could. Why does everyone assume that everyone else has a smartphone? Why does everything have an “app” associated with it?
I have a flip phone with large buttons and text for emergency use only ($35 year). Due to Parkinson’s disease, I’d be unable to use a smartphone even if I wanted one (which I don’t). I’m home bound, so why would I even waste the money on one?
I was looking at TV sound bars the other day, and some expect that you have a smart phone just to set them up. Really? What’s the point exactly? To sell your personal data I suppose.
I hate when I see a group of children walking down the street all of which are on their smartphones rather than interacting with each other.
/rant
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A problem with assuming that everyone has a smart phone, or a cell phone where, even if not “smart”, people can receive emails and text, as well as answer them (I have a new retro-styled little clam-shell that works that way) is that many will take that for granted and text or email you expecting a quick answer. I have had this happen to me in various occasions, for example when the airport shuttle driver coming to to pick me up, texted “I’m here, waiting for you, please, come down!” while, as I have warned the dispatcher in advance, I was going to be waiting by my landline phone (fortunately he got back to the dispatcher to tell her that I was not answering his texts and she gave me a ring to inform me that “your driver is outside, waiting for you” — as were the other shuttle passengers…) So, to avoid such situations, that can turn into serious difficulties, I think it is becoming increasingly more and more necessary to use one’s cell phone as a sort of any-time universal communications’ device, whether one likes it or not.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
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I don’t have a smart phone, I have a “slider” phone, that is, it has a slide out full-size keyboard so that I can easily text or edit my contact list.
I call my slider phone my “J-Phone” to contract with my wife’s iPhone.
Group "L" (Linux Mint)
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I have had this happen to me in various occasions, for example when the airport shuttle driver coming to to pick me up, texted “I’m here, waiting for you, please, come down!” while, as I have warned the dispatcher in advance, I was going to be waiting by my landline phone (fortunately he got back to the dispatcher to tell her that I was not answering his texts and she gave me a ring to inform me that “your driver is outside, waiting for you” — as were the other shuttle passengers…)
Isn’t it a sad state of affairs when the driver knows that text messages didn’t work, and yet it still didn’t occur to him to actually use the phone he was holding to make a phone call?
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I hate when I see a group of children walking down the street all of which are on their smartphones rather than interacting with each other.
I remember seeing a photograph of a bunch of people waiting to see the pope drive by. Every person in the crowd had an upraised smart phone except for one old woman, wearing a huge smile, who was just there in the moment with no electronics. She was the only one of the lot who was actually experiencing the event firsthand; all the others were seeing a pixelated video image, just as if they had seen someone else’s footage on Youtube. It seems that to many younger people, the only reason to ever do anything in person instead of watching someone else’s video of the same thing is not to have the “full” experience, but to be able to get your own footage of the event so that you can be the one getting the attention when it is shared.
I’m glad I managed to finish school before every student had one of these infernal things. When someone did something embarrassing, it used to be that those who saw it happen would tell friends, relying on a verbal description to paint a picture. The “news” would briefly go viral within the school, where any bit of gossip travels at warp speed, but then it would be done. Now every such moment is recorded for posterity multiple times by multiple classmates, and it’s already hashtagged and accumulating views on Youtube (or whatever the site of choice is) before the victim is even able to get back home for the day. All of the embarrassing moments of life, immortalized forever so that people who don’t like you can get a bit of validation on the internet.
It’s become so normal to record and share everything that one sees that the usual taboo against whipping out a camcorder and recording any random passerby is gone; people feel entitled to take still or moving pictures of anyone, doing anything, anywhere. Paparazzi have long been looked down upon by polite society for violating this rule when it comes to celebrities, but now everyone’s a Paparazzi, and everyone’s a target for them as well.
Am I supposed to want to be a part of this madness? So sorry to disappoint them, but I’m going to be like that old lady, not the crowd of monkey-see, monkey do-ers around her.
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All of the embarrassing moments of life, immortalized forever so that people who don’t like you can get a bit of validation on the internet.
Yeah Jr High School was bad enough w/o social media.
BTW made it through (well kinda) University w/o a calculator TI 55 was it back then. Anybody still have a slide rule? And now honestly anybody remember how to use one ??
But still love my smart phone, I was a late adopter for cells but very much enjoyed having one…all w/o ANY social media apps on it ever! Phone , voice recorder, camera, internet, GPS, tricorder, compass…
come on
Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.1 user thanked author for this post.
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I still have my K&E.
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Just an FYI – According to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History website, it’s Keuffel & Esser.
Alice
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By the way: what is a cell phone “slider’? Or is this is a term designating an imaginary object used to make an ironic point?
gosh I have no idea, please tell me!!
Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there. -
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anonymous ( #2189908 ) “Wait… tricorder???”
“Iz dat in the appstore?”
Yes, of course. Only in all the best 24th Century ones.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
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Wavy:
Phone , voice recorder, camera, internet, GPS, tricorder, compass…
come onWait… tricorder???
Iz dat in the appstore?
Well it used to be, I likely still have a backup of it from Archos and Nook time
Well looks like the original app got canned with a DMCA take down. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110906/04192915814/google-kills-tricorder-android-app-after-cbs-sends-dmca-takedown.shtml
But then there is this https://www.iflscience.com/technology/star-treks-tricorder-now-officially-exists-thanks-to-a-global-competition/
and this
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jeggersapp.tricorder&hl=en_US
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And I was a po boy, I have a Lafayete Vectorlog. leather case and very yellowed instruction pamphlet.
Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.
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From the article:
When I grew up, I could easily take things apart. They were hard to understand, but at least there was something to take apart and you could see mechanisms and understand that there was circuitry inside. And now technology is increasingly like magic, so you really can’t disassemble things. So I do wonder how the next generation of engineers, how they’ll bridge the gap between being interested in something and being able to actualize it.
I think that it is important that technology not become another kind of ‘magic’ with only certain people qualified and able to understand it. Part of technology is making things that people find easily useful, greatly expanding our capacity to do things, increase personal freedom and choice… rather than focusing on how to herd people into walled gardens to monetize and exploit them.
It is a time to seriously think about right to repair, premature end of life imposed by developers and manufacturers, proprietary vs. open source, etc. Companies will attempt to influence possible customers… but we choose what to buy and support. If people choose to put up with invasive technologies, more will be developed and pushed upon them.
Justine Haupt, the ‘space engineer’ who made the functioning rotary cell phone, took parts from an old rotary Trimline phone, a microcontroller and an Adafruit Fona 3G cell transceiver, a 3D-printed casing, a battery, and antenna…
The rotary dial phone is 3G- and not a ‘smart’ phone… and Haupt chooses not to use a smart phone… and she created this to meet her needs. She is a very well-educated person… working in a tech field… hmm… wonder why she chooses not to use a smart phone… (its in the article)
Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter
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I hate when I see a group of children walking down the street all of which are on their smartphones rather than interacting with each other.
Yeah, that is really sad.
Equally sad is to be at a restaurant and see a nearby table with two parents and their cute kids… all looking down at their screens and never speaking a word to one another.
There was one time, though, that smartphones came in handy at a restaurant. One night we tried out an Italian eatery that had been glowingly recommended to us. The place was SO LOUD, WE COULD HARDLY HEAR OURSELVES THINK, let alone make out what the other was saying. (And there was a microphone with huge speakers ten feet from our table, at which thankfully no crooner stood that evening.) It was so bad, we decided to start texting each other, and ended up having a nice conversation that way.
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Cybertooth: “Equally sad is to be at a restaurant and see a nearby table with two parents and their cute kids… all looking down at their screens and never speaking a word to one another.“
Because they were texting each other, just like you did, except they could also hear each other, but acknowledging that would have been very uncool.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
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Yup. My guess is that the parents either fell themselves for the hipness of it all, or had given up trying to stem the tide.
That restaurant with the texting family wasn’t noisy, unlike the one where we needed to resort to texting in order to communicate at all. Hmmm… if we knew sign language, it would have been a neat way to make a point about the decibel level at the noisy restaurant!
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I still have a princess touch tone phone for the landline. And I miss my pink razor cell. The iPhone has the vote for making the necessary contacts then it gets put back into the crossbody for the majority of a day’s work while taking care of the “greatest generation”, hands free and alert to their needs. Modern times in the way of gadgets are a bore.
MacOS iPadOS and sometimes SOS
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Still have a princess phone as that seems to be the only POT copper wired phone available. Also have a 4 base DECT 6.0 system for general use. Unfortunately my local phone company is going to rip out their copper lines so the emergency utility of a POT copper land line being almost always up will have to be replaced with, well basically VOIP through telephone company or cable or may be FEMTO cell powered system.
Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there. -
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Unfortunately my local phone company is going to rip out their copper lines so the emergency utility of a POT copper land line being almost always up will have to be replaced with, well basically VOIP through telephone company or cable or may be FEMTO cell powered system.
That is sad. At one time the United States had a totally reliable and resilient phone system – copper wires to your house, with always-on, redundant power supplied on the line. As a result, your landline ALWAYS worked, even when there was no electricity, as long as the line didn’t get cut. So if a hurricane struck your area and knocked power out for weeks, at least you had a working phone. I’ll bet it would even survive an EMP attack (electromagnetic pulse), something that would fry all modern electronics.
Those days are fading fast, as local phone company after local phone company rips out the copper lines.
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Where I live, Verizon, some years ago, replaced all their copper wiring with fiber optics. It makes for faster connection, downloads, etc. But it also means that, during blackouts, the landline phones, no longer being powered from the telephone exchange via copper wires, can only work on the power provided by a battery inside the network box installed in ones house or apartment. That battery has a charge that lasts eight hours, and then that’s it. And it needs replacing every couple of years. Someone living by himself or herself and having balance or mobility problems may not be able to reach this box to replace the battery, as it tends to be placed rather high up a wall. If asked, the telephone company will send someone to do it, at a price.
So this one, as so many innovations throughout history, cuts two ways: some progress at the expense of some inconvenience. And whether the balance between those two is acceptable or not, this often will not be decided and, if necessary, changes made, for so long that, by then, the negatives will have become a chronic bother.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
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well since i refuse to pay a premium for fiber I will at least save a bit on phone bills.
Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there. -
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I’m at that point right now with the copper lines failing in my rural area and Verizon telling me they won’t fix the copper anymore, and I have to get their fiber optic line put in.
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You can sure let them put it in, but you could always use another VOIP via cable for instance.
Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there. -
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We hung tough for years, flirting repeatedly with the idea of getting FiOS but never managing to pull the trigger for a variety of reasons.
Then one day we had a nice long talk with a Verizon CSR. We consolidated our cable TV service and three phone accounts into one FiOS phone account with two phone sub-accounts + Internet + TV, and ended up paying half of what we’d been shelling out each month for all these separate services.
In our case it helps that we have a home generator, which mitigates the issue of losing telephone service when the power goes out.
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I’m still a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) customer paying the same exact amount I paid when I was connected to copper.
Well I for one do not consider fiber to be POTS, POTS is copper and all the resilient infrastructure that comes with it. You should at least be getting a better deal, caller id and what ever included.
Get the install w/o contract and look for a better deal or negotiate .
Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there. -
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Yep, ran into that issue with Verizon when we were trying to get new copper business lines installed or relocated for our company offices located in their territory. Their reps politely informed us that they no longer planned to support their copper cable infrastructure, and that fiber was their future!
Right.
Personally, I have saved over $4000 in the last 9 years since I cut the “landline” cord and switched to VOIP, for an initial purchase of $149 for an Ooma VOIP device. The basic Ooma Telo is on sale for 89.99. Current MSRP is $99.99 at https://www.ooma.com/
My choice was a product called Ooma Telo. It is great if you have reliable broadband service. Not so great when your power goes out, or your internet is down. I use my cell phone as a backup in those rare cases.
The basic plan for Ooma is essentially free after you buy the Ooma base unit and plug it into your router via Ethernet. You only have to pay the monthly FCC taxes, etc., which in my case are <$6.00 a month. They have a Premier plan for $9.99/mo that you can upgrade to that gives you a 2nd line and some additional calling features.
I was also able to port my AT&T landline number over to Ooma, similar to the way you can move mobile numbers around.
I now have a multi-station cordless phone setup in my home, where that cordless base station plugs into the local side of the Ooma setup via the standard RJ11 phone cable.
So not paying my internet service provider for digital voice service!
Windows 10 Pro 22H2
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So if I cut both landline and TV and just keep the Internet, what the price might be?
I’ve that arrangement with Comcast. Internet only for 5+ years. I’m uninterested in TV or Comcast’s VoIP phones. If you keep after them, calling them once or twice a year, I get a decent price.
Because we’re in the country, we’ve always had asymmetric internet speeds: around 130 Mbps down / 10 Mbps up. $76 monthly when last I called their billing department to negotiate. I need a decent pipe for cloud backups and our regular internet traffic.
For a few years I had a Vonage line, and then we had copper POTS for a while as a back-up plan. Cancelled them both.
Yes, we have smartphones. Around 9 years ago in SoCal I had Verizon and dumped them because they had high prices. Switched to AT&T and kept them for 9 years. Because AT&T’s cell service goes down during power outages, in January I ‘auditioned” Verizon for six weeks. They paid me $500 to switch two lines to them, tried to buy our business. Their service was inferior to AT&T’s in our home geographical range, and everywhere else we traveled. And Verizon usually needed four phone calls or four tries at simple settings changes to get things right. So just yesterday I took our mobile phones back to AT&T. Our service is again pretty good in most of our geographical range.
I do a fair bit of videoconferencing with people in North America, Europe and Egypt. For that I use Zoom and very much like it. $150 annually for reliable software on either smartphones or desktops. I record video in it.
We’re in the Santa Cruz Mountains amid Coast redwoods. We’re in one of PG&E’s occassional enforced power outage zones so we’ve a backup generator. When the power goes out Comcast rolls in with portable electrical generators to keep their service going. So Zoom stays live, as does WiFi calling on our smartphones.
Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster
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Soul Rider: Thanks for explaining what you have done to get the service you need and only the service you need.
I live in a city, but I am afraid that, for me, it is either Verizon, or Verizon, because Comcast is not wired in my apartments building. Comcast used to be our TV channel provider, while Verizon was the telephone + internet company, then over copper. Comcast’s coaxial gear was removed at the time when Verizon shifted everything from copper to fiber and the only alternative to Verizon left for watching TV was to subscribe to Direct TV, which was not a great success. Except for local over-the-air TV, of course. Now days there is little of interest to me that I cannot read or watch on the Web, including important news developments. The only thing I would miss if I stop receiving TV is the local TV news, because the newspapers that used to cover news from my county went long ago the way of all such publications (as well as of local independent radio stations) and we are all the poorer for that.
And the very best of luck with your new show.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
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My guess is that the parents either fell themselves for the hipness of it all, or had given up trying to stem the tide.
I’ve personally never had to be concerned with that. But if I needed to I’d ask everyone to put their phones in plain view atop the table. The first one to touch their phone buys the meal
Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster
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we’re in the country, we’ve always had asymmetric internet speeds: around 130 Mbps down / 10 Mbps up. $76 monthly when last I called their billing department to negotiate. I need a decent pipe for cloud backups and our regular internet traffic.
Regular testing
Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster
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So if I cut both landline and TV and just keep the Internet, what the price might be?
I have “internet only” via broadband cable. Been that way for many years.
The provider usually tries hard to market bundles, so you may have to insist that broadband internet is all that you need. You may not even see it listed a la carte anymore, so asking is key. I pay about $50/mo for high speed internet.
So get the internet, add a streaming stick like Roku, and a VOIP service like Ooma, and you are all set.
I’ve not paid for cable TV for over 20 years, or standard telephone service for almost 10 years. I do have a OTA (over the air) HDTV antenna setup to receive live sports and news on the major broadcast networks.
You can always get a HULU subscription for keeping up with network TV series. There are always new streaming subscription plans popping up, like HBO Now for $15/mo. Some other companies require you to have a cable TV provider in order to subscribe to their streaming channels. I avoid those. Sports is the most difficult thing to cable cut with…
Windows 10 Pro 22H2
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Yes I was referring to Verizon, but the other biggies like Comcast aka Xfinity and satellite companies do it too. Those fees can really be ridiculous, like charges for HD, High Definition? I thought everything was HD these days.
Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's1 user thanked author for this post.
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But I want to look before jumping, so I think I’ll try a VOIP service to see how well it suits my needs, before jumping.
Another handy thing about the Ooma Telo device is that it is “portable”.
Once you have registered it and set up your phone number, you can take it with you and plug it into any network, if you commute or travel. Your phone number follows along with the device.
The network MAC address (internal address) in the device is automatically registered and connects to the Ooma network via IP from anywhere, using your profile. You will need to update your profile with your current location for 911 emergency purposes any time it changes. The only way it knows where you are is if you tell it. So as far as I know, it is not setup to use location services, like Windows does.
I will also add that Ooma provides a free voicemail service, which can be accessed from anywhere through their web portal. Makes it easy to keep up with messages when away from home!
Windows 10 Pro 22H2
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Once you have registered it and set up your phone number, you can take it with you and plug it into any network, if you commute or travel. Your phone number follows along with the device.
A clever and intelligent design. Also, in addition what I’ve dug about Zoom is that it has both desktop and smartphone apps. I can do voice calls from anywhere on the planet with either a cell signal or Wifi or both. I’ve linked my existing biz number to it. And my biz number is a virtual Google Voice number which points to my telco number on my smartphone.
Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster
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A clever and intelligent design.
Yes it is! I have been using it exclusively for landline purposes for the past 9 years.
It has worked flawlessly that entire time, subject to the whims of my power company (and the occasional falling tree), and my broadband provider.
In the case of those unexpected circumstances I report the outage via cellphone and leave the cell number for callback.
Windows 10 Pro 22H2
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the price they advertise is a promotional price which only lasts for a year or sometimes two and then goes up to their standard higher price.
That can be especially true with the bundle deals for cable TV, internet, and phone.
Windows 10 Pro 22H2
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Verizon in my area comes up as $39 (plus the usual Tax,fee, bs) for 200 Mbps internet. That sound very reasonable even w/ the added fees. If one has trouble seeing this a private browser may be of utility. Of course this may vary tremendously by area. I am in the NY Metro Area. I am retinking my ISP,Telcom, TV services as well.
Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there. -
Wavy: That sounds interesting, but a few more details could help me see what I can do to get such a deal. Have you a deal where you are getting Internet-only from Verizon Fios? And how did that happen? I also live in another big metro area, not cheap but not like NYC either, and NYC is not the cheapest place for anything, except, perhaps, pizza.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV -
I just took a few seconds to go to the web site and that is what I got, I can not explain why you do not see similar except for location.
This is the page I see it at https://www.verizon.com/home/fios-fastest-internet/
with these details
Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.-
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Maybe there are two sides to all of us
But it is good to have that ‘con’ info too, I am thinking I will be in this investigating process too as Verizon promises to rip out my copper.
Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.
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You get an Optic Fiber line with only 50 Mbps instead of 1 Gbps ?
I only have 40 Mbps down, and that is more than I need to stream UHD, and do many other things flawlessly. IMHO, anything over 15-20 is likely a waste for many folks.
I’m not sure what I’d do with 1Gbps. I guess it all depends on what one plans to do with it.
Windows 10 Pro 22H2
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Higher rates, for higher number of devices connected at the same time: this is why some need more than 45 Mb/s or 50 Mb/s. Those with only one likely device (e.g. a PC) to be connected at any time to stream video, are not going to get better results with a much higher bandwidth connection, because it is not going to be completely used
Right, that is exactly what I meant by my comment. More is only better if you actually are going to use it. Along those lines, if budget matters, don’t pay for a lot more than you need. Do a bit of research and determine how much bandwidth you consume concurrently.
A home consumer is not going to have the same bandwidth needs as a data center. I believe the scope of this discussion was among home consumers, and getting the bang for the buck from their local providers.
The device count, and the patterns of data traffic being used are the key factors that matter. I come from a data center and networking environment, so I do understand those principles.
Windows 10 Pro 22H2
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This pay more for fios is bs do not do it. My condo got paid $3000 for letting them put in their setup. (and a poor job they did the line in my unit are in the kitchen side (moron contractors) of my unit.
Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there. -
I still have my slip-stick but haven’t needed it since I retired. I always wanted one of the cylindrical slide rules that allowed you to do complex-number calculations but never could afford one. When I started playing with telephones they had magnetos ( party lines were fun) or 10pps loop-disconnect dialing. I use a smartphone in dumb mode – voice and SMS – on a no-data deal, it makes a reasonable alarm clock!
I ring (landline) telephones on stage – amateur dramatics. If you’re doing a British play, you don’t want the phones to ring with an American accent. It took me years to collect a list of how phones ring in different countries, just in time to have VOIP make it obsolete.
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